Former Mayor Gets Kick From Seeing New Center Take Form In Smithfield

A volunteer with the Isle of Wight, Smithfield, Windsor branch of the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA, that's just what the former town mayor has been doing for the past 1 1/2 years.

He, along with more than 200 other volunteers, has helped transform the west end of the former Smithfield High School building on James Street into a mecca of aerobics and weightlifting, basketball and field hockey games, day care and after-school programs.

``It's a privilege to do it,'' he says. ``You see something accomplished. I think it's important because of the children and for the adults and elderly people. It's good for everyone.''

A ``Y'' branch opened in Smithfield a little more than 1+ years ago. When the YMCA first acquired the building, officials opened the doors to a project. Tractors, lawn mowers and other equipment had been stored in the gymnasium. The bathrooms and locker rooms were left to deteriorate when the school closed a decade ago.

Caldwell, walking around the center in paint-covered clothes, tells the rise of the Smithfield Y as if it were a hero novel and the community the protagonist.

With a little help from contractors, volunteers turned the stage in the school gym into a fitness center. They dropped the ceiling, put up a wall and prepared it for old Nautilus equipment purchased from the Newport News branch YMCA. They worked on the plumbing in the bathrooms. They turned the boys' locker room into an office. They rekindled the gymnasium into a place for aerobics and basketball.

Everyone played a part in the Smithfield YMCA story. If volunteers were the main characters, contractors and the county made a series of cameos. Construction and electrical crews worked for the cost of materials or less. Isle of Wight County agreed to rent the building for $1 a year for 20 years.

``You're seeing something that will make the whole community better,'' says Caldwell, a graduate of the Apprentice School and Virginia Tech.

To understand Caldwell's part in this novel of fitness and fun, keep track of your Ys. He lives in Smithfield but has been a member of the Newport News branch YMCA for six years. A former director of the Newport News branch asked the 42-year Newport News Shipbuilding veteran if he knew of any interest for a Y in Smithfield.

Caldwell, who served on the town council during the late '80s and early '90s, had a few ideas.

He helped pull together a board that now numbers 18, including himself.

He also knew of an ideal empty building, the former Smithfield High School.

``He's been with it since the beginning,'' says Leslie Bryant, Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA extension director.

Having a former mayor and shipyard veteran has had its advantages, Bryant says. Former mayors like Caldwell have connections. He understands proposals and construction contracts. He knows how to address the town council and Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors. Then there's a bonus.

Caldwell doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. He's worked on the Y as early as 7 a.m. and as late as 10 and 11 p.m. He worked last winter without heat, last summer without air conditioning.

``He's full time, basically,'' Bryant says.

He mixes work at the YMCA with his retiree schedule of golf, fishing and doing ``whatever I want to.''

Ironically, Caldwell has yet to join the center he's worked so hard to bring to life.

The board member has more important things to do. A few more doors need to be replaced around the center. Locker rooms have to be refurbished. He needs to talk to someone about the air conditioner.

The Smithfield story, already filled with great beginning and middle chapters, needs a fitting end.

In search of that perfect ending, Caldwell plans to take advantage of his privilege to fix toilets and doors, paint walls and refurbish floors.

I'll join ``as soon as I finish working up here,'' he says.

TO HELP

* To volunteer with or join the Isle of Wight, Smithfield, Windsor branch of the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA, call 365-4060.